An exhibit currently touring the United States is focused on Sir Ernest Shackleton and the famous Antarctic expedition that he led 85 years ago. What does his story teach us about moral courage and leadership?

When Ernest Shackleton and his 27-man crew disappeared in the icy waters off Antarctica in 1914, the world presumed they were dead. After all, you took your chances when you went where winds could reach 200 mph, and temperatures could drop below -100° F.

They departed South Georgia Island to the northwest of the Antarctic continent with dreams of glory. They intended to become the first men to cross Antarctica on foot. But nature had other plans. Their ship Endurance became trapped in the ice floes of the treacherous Weddell Sea and was unable to inch forward toward its destination or call for help. In those days, there was no global positioning system to track them at the bottom of the world. No one had a cell phone or a fax or an instant messenger. They were lost.

In November 1915, they abandoned ship. None could have foreseen that they would all survive. Now people study this incredible story to understand how Shackleton's exceptionally thoughtful leadership under the most adverse conditions sustained and motivated his crew to live.

• Find out more about the cast of characters on this voyage.

Shackleton's original voyage began in late 1914, when the Endurance left South Georgia Island. A few months later, just 80 miles from her destination, she would become entombed in ice and eventually splinter and sink. After camping on the ice, Shackleton made the decision to sail to a stable landfall, a nearly uninhabitable spit of rock, ice, and shore called Elephant Island.

There, Shackleton made his boldest move. He took his five toughest crew members and sailed back to South Georgia Island in a small lifeboat. With only a sextant, a chronometer, and few rations, without benefit of foul weather gear or warm clothing, these brave men sailed for 17 days, holding their navigator aloft while he took readings from the Sun.

That they reached their destination at all is a wonder—a matter of immense skill and luck. But the journey wasn't over, for help lay on the other side of the island across a vast and treacherous mountain range. With only a carpenter's ax and no climbing tools, Shackleton and two of his men journeyed across the harsh land for a day and a half. He would not let them sleep for fear that they would freeze to death. It would take another three months to rescue the men on Elephant Island.

• Compare the Endurance story with the recent television show Survivor. The object of Survivor was to eliminate your opponents by making alliances with other people on the deserted island that you all shared. This process would go on so that only one contestant would win in the end.
  

Shackleton might have remained a name known only to explorers and extreme sports fanatics but for recent events. First, the writer Caroline Alexander unearthed the amazing photographic record of the expedition made by the ship's talented Australian photographer, Frank Hurley. Alexander wrote a book, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, and in 1999 helped curate a museum exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The exhibit has since visited Massachusetts and opens at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, in early October.

When Joel Swindler, the developer of the Shackleton exhibit for the American Museum of Natural History, set out to challenge his designers to produce a captivating exhibit, he focused on the rescue journey. The exhibit makes use of computer-generated waves on large monitors to simulate the motion of the sea. A visitor is drawn into the motion of the waves, as though he or she is riding in a small boat experiencing the sea, just the way Shackleton and his men experienced it in their lifeboat.

Originally, the wave amplitudes were exact replicas of the waves Shackleton and his men experienced, but they had to be toned down because the video screen could not capture their actual height. "You would have never seen the tops of the waves," Swindler said, "but would have been stuck in the valleys."

In an interview given to the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, Caroline Alexander said:

Shackleton was 40. He was a frustrated explorer, and his expedition had gone awry. He immediately regrouped and focused on getting the men out. His men said after his death in his fifties that he always put the welfare of his company above the goal of the expedition. We're so goal-oriented that the notion of giving something up when we're so tantalizingly close is foreign. His sacred task was the return of the men to safety. …Who [today] swallows their thoughts and opinions in deference to the good of the group?….[W]e are drawn to the magnetism and old-world leadership Shackleton displayed, though we recognize that we could not operate like that.

Here are some things Shackleton did to help his men cope with their disaster. Make a list of the qualities you think a good leader needs. What characteristics do the following actions show? What heroes in myth or legend (or what actual people in present-day life) exemplify some or all of these characteristics?

• When the Endurance sank, Shackleton had to change his plans immediately: He had to give up his dream of crossing Antarctica.

• They brought dogs with them for sledding across the continent. When the ship was trapped, Shackleton divided the dogs into groups, and appointed a man to take care of each group. This led to dog-racing competitions and provided regular exercise for both the men and the dogs.

• For the rescue mission, he took men who would not get along with the others if left behind.

• When there wasn't enough food, he gave his share to the crew.

• He was indefatigable. He never asked his crew to do something that he would not also do. This buoyed their spirits. When crossing South Georgia Island, he led the way, never slept, and made bold decisions about where to challenge the mountains.

• Shackleton treated his men as individuals. He created an atmosphere of trust and cohesion.

• He never gave up.

Learn More

• The Riverdeep Today article, "An Olympic-Sized Ozone Hole," covers another kind of problem in Antarctica.
  
  
  

More Links

• Visit the Shackleton home page in his native Ireland.
  
  
• The PBS science show NOVA is making a documentary about the Antarctic explorations for release this winter. Visit the advance Web site for Shackleton's Antarctic Odyssey.

• Check out The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
  
  

Related Resources

• Learn more about Shackleton's story in the following books:

• The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, by Caroline Alexander.
• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing.
• South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance, by Sir Ernest Shackleton.